(UVALDE) — Lawyers representing former Uvalde school police chief Pete Arredondo in multiple lawsuits stemming from the massacre last year at a Texas elementary school are being paid by the Uvalde school district’s insurance carrier, the district confirmed Friday.
“We are not writing checks for his legal fees, but our insurance coverage is paying,” interim schools Superintendent Gary Patterson told ABC News.
Patterson said he could not say how much the fees have run so far.
Mandy Gutierrez, who was principal when a gunman stormed Robb Elementary school on May 24, 2022, has also been awarded money from the insurance company for legal fees, Patterson said. Like Arredondo, Gutierrez is the defendant in a series of lawsuits stemming from the rampage. Nineteen students and two of their teachers were killed in the shooting.
The payments were first reported by the San Antonio Express-News.
Arredondo was fired last August after investigators found that he failed to properly lead police in responding to the active shooter situation as it unfolded at Robb. He has offered varying explanations about what happened and said he was being made a scapegoat. Arredondo’s conduct that day is being investigated and the local district attorney plans to have a grand jury review the events of May 24 to determine if anyone could be charged criminally. The gunman was killed when police, after more than an hour, stormed the classroom where he was holed up.
Despite the criticism of Arredondo, the superintendent said the district’s insurance carrier had no choice but to cover the former chief’s legal fees.
“He has not been charged with any crimes that I’m aware of,” said Patterson. “There was no reason, from the insurance perspective, not to provide him coverage.”
The claims awarded to Arredondo and Gutierrez will not affect the insurance rates paid by the district, Patterson said.
Neither Gutierrez or Arredondo – nor their lawyers – responded to requests from ABC News for comment.
(NEW YORK) — Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday he is not running for president in 2024.
“The time is not right for me and my family,” Pompeo said in a statement.
Pompeo, 59, said he and his wife Susan made the decision “after much consideration and prayer.”
Pompeo served under former President Donald Trump as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2017 to 2018 and as secretary of state from 2018 to 2021. He was considered a potential Republican candidate for president as the 2024 election shapes up.
Republicans who have thrown their hat into the ring include Trump, Nikki Haley, who served as a U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in the Trump administration, and Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas.
Among Democrats, Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have announced bids for the White House.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly said he intends to run for reelection in 2024 barring some major issues such as his health. However, the Democrat has not officially announced a decision.
Biden told reporters Friday that he plans to announce his plans “relatively soon.”
“I’ve already made that calculus,” Biden said on the tarmac as he departed Knock, Ireland, when asked whether his trip to the country has changed or influenced his plans on seeking re-election. “But the trip here just reinforced my sense of optimism about what can be done.”
When pressed on the decision, Biden added, “I told you my plan is to run again.”
In January, Pompeo told CBS News he was considering a 2024 run for president but was still undecided on whether to throw his hat in the ring.
The former Kansas congressman also announced his decision not to run during an appearance on Fox News Friday evening.
“While we care deeply about America, and the issues that I’ve been talking about this last year and a half, and frankly for decades, matter an awful lot, this isn’t our moment,” he said about himself and his wife.
Pompeo hinted at potential future bids for president in his statement Friday.
“To those of you this announcement disappoints, my apologies,” Pompeo said. “And to those of you this thrills, know that I’m 59 years-old. There remain many more opportunities for which the timing might be more fitting as presidential leadership becomes even more necessary.”
ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report.
(TEXAS) — Four motorcyclists were shot, three fatally, at two locations along a Texas highway Friday in what appear to be connected incidents involving “outlaw motorcycle gangs,” authorities said.
The first incident occurred shortly after 11 a.m. local time on Interstate 45 in Spring, north of Houston, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.
Responding deputies found a 32-year-old man who had been shot with what initially appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries. The victim was transported to a local hospital but died Friday afternoon “despite extensive medical efforts,” the sheriff’s office said.
About an hour after the first incident, a second shooting was reported on I-45 in Huntsville, about 50 miles north, local police said.
Three male motorcyclists were found suffering from gunshot wounds, according to the Huntsville Police Department. Two of the victims — aged 43 and 69 — were pronounced dead at the scene, while a 61-year-old man was air-lifted to a Houston hospital, police said. No further information on his condition was released.
All three victims were “wearing clothing and insignia that indicated they were part of an outlaw motorcycle gang,” Huntsville Police said.
The first shooting also involved individuals “believed to be affiliated with outlaw motorcycle gangs,” the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said.
Authorities believe the two shootings are related, according to Huntsville Police, who said they are coordinating with the Texas Rangers on their investigation.
“These shootings appear to be gang-related and it is believed there is no threat to the general public at this time,” the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said.
Huntsville Police also said they believe there is no threat to the public and that the shootings “appear to be a gang-related targeted attack.”
The incidents are under investigation and no arrests have been announced.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — A fellow tech executive killed 43-year-old Cash App founder Bob Lee earlier this month with a kitchen knife after driving him to a secluded area, prosecutors said in a court filing Friday.
Police arrested the suspect on Thursday and identified him as Nima Momeni, 38, who appears to be the owner of an Emeryville, California-based company called Expand IT.
In a motion filed on Friday to hold Momeni without bail, prosecutors offered new details about the events leading up to the alleged murder.
Lee, an executive at cryptocurrency firm MobileCoin, was killed in the early morning hours on April 4 in the San Francisco neighborhood of Rincon Hill, the San Francisco Police Department said last week.
During the previous afternoon, Lee spent time with Momeni’s sister and a witness, who identified him or herself as a close friend of Lee, prosecutors said.
Later in the day, at Lee’s hotel room, he had a conversation with Momeni in which he asked Lee about whether his sister was “doing drugs or anything inappropriate,” the witness told the police, according to the document.
Lee reassured Momeni that nothing inappropriate had taken place, the witness said to police.
Early the following morning, at about 2 a.m., camera footage showed Lee and Momeni leaving Lee’s hotel and getting into Momeni’s car, a BMW Z4, prosecutors said.
Video shows the BMW drive to a secluded and dark area where the two men got out of the car. Momeni “moved toward” Lee and the BMW drove away from the scene at high speed, according to the court document.
Police later found a roughly 4-inch blade at the scene that appeared to have blood on it, the document said.
The doctor who conducted the autopsy found that Lee had been stabbed three times, including one strike that penetrated his heart, the document said.
“Mr. Momeni was taken into custody without incident in Emeryville and transported to San Francisco County jail and booked on a charge of murder,” San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said at a briefing on Thursday. “Our investigators have been working tirelessly to make this arrest.”
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Thursday applauded the efforts of the SFPD.
“While in some cases we do immediately have as suspect, that was not the situation here,” she said. “Mr. Lee’s killer has been identified, arrested, and now will be brought to justice.”
“He positively affected millions of people throughout his life. He had an overarching need to make technology accessible, and to help out everyone,” Bob Lee’s brother Timothy Oliver Lee said in a statement Thursday. “Bob’s dream was to make technology free and available.”
“Every day around the world, people interact with technology that Bob helped create. Bob will live on through these interactions and his dreams of improving all of our lives,” Timothy Oliver Lee’s statement continued. “As a family, we’re very thankful to the hard working Detectives at the SFPD for bringing his killer to Justice.”
London Breed, the mayor of San Francisco, said in a statement to ABC News last week that Lee’s death marks a “horrible tragedy.”
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Space Force, operating under the Department of the Air Force, became the nation’s newest branch of the military after then-President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act in 2019.
“Now is the time to establish a team, a separate service totally focused on organizing, training and equipping space forces,” Barbara Barrett, Secretary of the Air Force, said at a Pentagon press conference at the time.
Under President Joe Biden’s 2024 budget request unveiled last month, funding to the Space Force would increase to $30 billion to “meet evolving threats” and “protect U.S. interests in space,” a Space Force statement said. Maj. Gen. John Olson, mobilization assistant to the chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force, spoke to ABC News’ Linsey Davis about why the U.S. military is preparing for potential conflict in space.
LINSEY DAVIS: As humanity continues to reach for the stars, the U.S. is trying to keep pace with nations like China and Russia in space. And joining us now for more is Maj. Gen. John Olson, who is the mobilization assistant to the chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force at the Pentagon. Thank you so much for your time, General Olsen. Appreciate you joining us here.
JOHN OLSON: Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be with you, Linsey.
DAVIS: So let’s just start for the viewers at home who are saying, “Why should I care about potential conflict in space?” What’s the answer?
OLSON: Well, you know, space is absolutely essential to every part of our life. You know, we wake up in the morning, we check the weather, we drive to work with position navigation and timing, which is GPS. We have all of our banking and transactions done. So it’s really pivotal to every part of our life. But it’s also critical to the modern way of integrated deterrence and defense and national security. So it’s vitally important that we maintain our leadership in space. And so that’s really what the Space Force is focused on. It’s bringing that sense of stability, security and safety to the environment.
DAVIS: And you mentioned GPS, for example. Obviously, this relies on critical satellites that are there in space. Should we be concerned? Are those under threat?
OLSON: Well, you know, our global positioning system, we’re celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. So it’s really a big milestone for us. And as we already mentioned, it’s so critical to almost every facet of our life. So we are really focused on a resilient and effective space architecture, not just with the global positioning system, but also with all of our space architectures. And so that’s our paradigm that we’re pursuing through our investments to transform into a much more resilient and effective space architecture.
DAVIS: You know, when we talk about countries like China and Russia, and they seem to be really trying to fast track their increased space technology. And there are some who fear that the U.S. is losing that race. Would you agree?
OLSON: No, I wouldn’t. I think we have had a strong leadership position in space, and that’s civil, commercial, national security in international space through our close partners and allies. But we’re trying to keep pace, not just with our ground systems, but our launch vehicles and our satellites and on orbit systems, through not just Earth-centric — through geosynchronous orbit, low Earth orbit — but also looking at cislunar and lunar space and further.
DAVIS: What kind of resources would you say that the Space Force needs?
OLSON: Well, the Space Force has been genuinely pretty well blessed. Our president’s budget submit is about $30 billion a year, which represents $2.6 billion more than last year. And I think that’s a real recognition of the critical importance to not just our nation, but our national security and defense. And so as we look at the funding and investments, I think we’ve got a huge amount of modernization and development transformation to do and that also ties to our people, the most important facet of what we’re doing. We really have three lines of effort: fielding capable and ready combat forces, driving our guardian spirit, and last, it’s partnering to win.
DAVIS: And so I think you kind of just answered the question I was about to ask, but I am curious, because there are going to be people who say, “well, look, we have hunger and homelessness down here on this planet. What are you doing with the $30 billion?” Can you kind of give us an applicable way that people would say, “Oh, OK, I guess I understand why that’s necessary”?
OLSON: Sure. Absolutely. Well, Earth imaging helps us leverage and use our scarce resources in the most efficient and productive way. It allows us to operate more safely and more securely and more efficiently here on Earth. So that which we spend in space safeguards all the aspects and attributes of our life here on Earth. And it also is an important enabler, because as we look at the, you know, that innate desire to explore and discover, I think the information and new knowledge that we’re learning benefits all of humankind.
DAVIS: It feels like a big job. I’m just curious, with all of the wealth of knowledge that you have, is there anything in particular, if there’s one thing, that keeps you up at night, what is that?
OLSON: Well, you know, it is a big job. But we’ve got a great group of people. And, you know, our guardians and airmen across the portfolio are extremely capable, talented and qualified. But the one thing that I think keeps me up at night and that is, as we look at cybersecurity, there is no space without cyber. And so we need to ensure that we’re continually investing and being vigilant and diligent in that domain. And so that’s a core part of our broader national security imperatives, and so that’s what we’re focused on. And I think you should sleep well knowing that our guardians and airmen are hard at work.
DAVIS: All right. Hopefully, we’ll all be able to get a little more rest knowing that. General Olson, we thank you so much for your time and insight. Appreciate it.
(MISSOURI) — The Missouri attorney general announced new limitations Thursday on gender-affirming care for minors and adults in a move that has sparked outrage from advocacy and LGBTQ groups.
Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s limitations would require adults to attend 18 months of psychological or psychiatric assessments via a therapist before receiving gender-affirming care “to explore the developmental influences on the patient’s current gender identity and to determine, among other things, whether the person has any mental health comorbidities.”
Providers also would need to prove that “the patient has exhibited a medically documented, long-lasting, persistent and intense pattern of gender dysphoria” for at least three years, according to the announcement.
LGBTQ advocates slammed Bailey’s decision to restrict the health care available to both adults and minors, arguing that Bailey’s announcement is based in discrimination and not science.
“The Attorney General’s claims are maliciously cherry-picked and come from unverified sources that allow him to promulgate disgusting, obstructive and misleading information into an emergency rule,” said PROMO, Missouri’s LGBTQ+ public policy and advocacy organization, in a statement to ABC News.
Bailey’s announcement focuses on the risks associated with gender-affirming care, but physicians have told ABC News that all medications, surgeries or vaccines for any kind of treatment come with risk and gender-affirming care is no different.
They say knowing the risks and benefits of treatment – and of not treating a condition – can help families and individuals make an informed decision.
Major national medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and over 20 more agree that gender-affirming care is safe, effective, beneficial and medically necessary.
Due to gender-related discrimination and gender dysphoria, trans youth are more likely to experience anxiety, depressed mood and to think about or attempt suicide. Gender-affirming hormone therapy has been found on average to improve the mental health of transgender adolescents and teenagers, according to a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Gender dysphoria refers to the stress of being in a body that doesn’t feel like one’s own.
Though Bailey calls puberty blockers “experimental” in his announcement, drugs in the class have been FDA approved since the 1990s to treat early puberty. They are not specifically approved to treat gender dysphoria, but have been studied and commonly prescribed for that purpose for decades.
Modern gender-affirming care is based on “decades of clinical experience and research and, therefore, they are not considered experimental, cosmetic or for convenience,” per the World Professional Association for Transgender Health standards of care.
Studies have also shown that it’s rare for people to reverse a transition after undergoing gender-affirming care, according to research in the journal LGBT Health which also found that those who reverse their transition often do so because of pressures from family and social stigma.
Rates of regret for gender-affirmation surgery are extremely low — research shows they hover around 1%, according to the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery medical journal. Rates of regret for knee and hip surgeries are significantly higher, studies show.
Bailey also cited the high mortality rate for transgender people in his announcement. Studies in the Duke University Press, the National Cancer Institute and Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology have shown that transgender people face economic and social marginalization, violence and discrimination at a higher rate than non-transgender people — that research asserts that these issues likely play a role in the persistence of poor health and higher mortality in the community.
The research asserts that these issues likely play a role in the persistence of poor health and higher mortality in the community.
Bailey’s announcement comes amid an investigation into a St. Louis transgender health care center that is accused by a whistle-blower of “using experimental drugs on children,” distributing medication “without individualized assessment” and “without parental consent,” according to the attorney general’s office.
The center said it was “alarmed by the allegations.”
The emergency regulation is effective starting April 27 until February 6, 2024.
“We are taking this matter very seriously and have already begun the process of looking into the situation to ascertain the facts,” Washington University’s Transgender Center said in a statement. “As always, our highest priority is the health and well-being of our patients. We are committed to providing compassionate, family-centered care to all of our patients and we hold our medical practitioners to the highest professional and ethical standards.”
Civil rights organizations including Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri vowed to pursue litigation against the move from the attorney general’s office.
“Gender-affirming care is critical in helping transgender adolescents succeed in school, establish healthy relationships with their friends and family, live authentically as themselves, and dream about their futures,” the organizations said in a joint statement. “We will defend the rights of transgender people through any necessary legal action, just as we have done in other states engaging in this anti-science and discriminatory fearmongering.”
Gender-affirming care for youth has been restricted in at least 12 states.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — A Jan. 6 rioter seen in chaotic video assaulting and pinning a Metropolitan Police Department officer in a doorway was sentenced Friday to 7 years and 6 months in prison.
Patrick McCaughey was at the front of the mob that trapped D.C. officer Daniel Hodges the building’s lower West Terrace tunnel as he was repeatedly assaulted by rioters.
Judge Trevor McFadden described the assault as among the “most dangerous and violent clashes with police” and that McCaughey’s actions amounted to “some of the most egregious crimes committed on that day.”
Officer Hodges told the court the trauma he experienced in that doorway continues to haunt him and that “all Americans” were victims of McCaughley’s assault.
“Not a day goes by that I do not recall the events of January 6,” he said.
Wearing a baggy orange short sleeve jumpsuit and a dressing the judge in a somber tone, McCaughey said what he did on Jan. 6 was “the greatest embarrassment of my life.”
“I will be a felon … unworthy of the trust and rights I once enjoyed,” McCaughey said.
McCaughey apologized to the police and his own family before the judge read and explained his sentence.
McFadden said McCaughey’s expression of remorse and lack of prior criminal history weighed in favor of a lighter sentence.
The judge ultimately rejected the government’s recommendation of 15-plus years. Instead he issued three separate sentences, all to be served concurrently.
(NEW YORK) — Parler, a social media platform popular among conservatives, will temporarily shut down after being acquired by the hedge fund Starboard, the company said on Friday.
The acquisition comes months after the failure of a bid for the app’s parent company, Parlement Technologies, undertaken by Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.
Starboard pulled down the app as part of a “strategic assessment” but plans to relaunch the platform, the company said in a statement.
“No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more,” Starboard said.
“We at Starboard see tremendous opportunities across multiple sectors to continue to serve marginalized or even outright censored communities,” the company added.
New York-based Starboard, founded in 2018, did not disclose how much it paid to acquire Parlement Technologies.
In the middle of last year, Parler counted 700,000 monthly average users compared with 2.8 million on rival rightwing platform Truth Social, according to data from the firm Data.ai, which was analyzed by the New York Times.
Starboard also owns right-leaning sites American Wire and BizPac Review.
“Parler’s large user base and additional strategic assets represent an enormous opportunity for Starboard to continue to build aggressively in our media and publishing business,” Ryan Coyne, CEO of Starboard, said in a statement.
“The team at Parler has built an exceptional audience and we look forward to integrating that audience across all of our existing platforms,” he added.
Parler was removed from iPhone and Android app stores after the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The platform was later reinstated to those app stores.
Launched five years ago, Parler characterized itself as a platform where a user could “speak freely and express yourself openly without fear of being ‘deplatformed’ for your views,” according to the homepage on its previous website.
Parler is among a host of alternative content platforms — including Truth Social, Rumble and Gab — considered to have less stringent content moderation policies than apps such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Parler is the most well-known of those alternative platforms, according to a Pew Research survey conducted last May.
Thirty-eight percent of U.S. adults said they had heard of Parler, as opposed to 27% of adults familiar with Truth Social and 20% who knew of Rumble, the study showed.
The acquisition of Parler arrives amid tumult in the social media landscape.
Facebook-parent Meta, which has laid off more than 20,000 workers since the fall, has suffered declines in its revenue and stock price.
Meanwhile, Twitter has slashed roughly 75% of its workforce and overhauled its subscription offering since entrepreneur Elon Musk completed a $44 billion deal for the service in October.
China-based TikTok, which boasts more than 150 million U.S. users, faces bipartisan calls on Capitol Hill for a ban.
In the press announcement on Friday, Starboard referred to Parler as “the world’s pioneering uncancelable free speech platform.”
(LONDON) — It was in early March when Fereshteh, a 42-year-old mother of two, said she received a phone call from a friend claiming there had been a chemical gas attack at a girls’ school in their small town in Iran’s Isfahan Province. She ran all the way to her daughter’s high school, fearing for her only daughter’s safety.
“I felt my heart coming out of my chest with fear. I don’t know how my feet dragged me to Roshana’s (her daughter) school,” Fereshteh said. ABC News has agreed to use pseudonyms for her and her 16-year-old daughter so that they could speak freely of their experience.
Even after finding her daughter safe, Fereshteh told ABC News she did not let either Roshana or her 11-year-old son go to school for five weeks, fearing for their wellbeing.
Over 7,000 students in Iran have been affected by at least 290 similar incidents at schools involving “poisonous substances” from November through March, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a press association established by Iranian human rights advocates. The mysterious poisonings have primarily targeted schools for girls, the agency said.
Hundreds of schoolgirls have been hospitalized as a result of these “targeted chemical attacks,” United Nations officials said in a statement March 16.
“We are deeply concerned about the physical and mental well-being of these schoolgirls; their parents and the ability of the girls to enjoy their fundamental right to education,” the U.N. statement said.
Some protesters and activists allege that the gas attacks are an attempt by government forces to close schools after mass protests that roiled the country in the wake of the suspicious death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died under mysterious circumstances shortly after being arrested in September for allegedly not wearing a hijab.
Women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad claimed in an interview with ABC News that the attacks are the Islamic Republic’s “revenge” on women for their leading role in the ongoing anti-regime movement.
The Iranian government initially dismissed the reported attacks as rumors, but Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has since called the poisonings an “unforgivable crime.” “If there are any people involved in the matter, and there certainly are… the perpetrators must be given the most severe of punishments,” he warned in a statement March 6.
Amid the closing of schools for the two-week Persian New Year holidays in late March, many parents and observers had said they hoped the gas attacks would be over. However, a series of apparent attacks were reported in several cities across the country in early April, especially in the Kurdish town of Saqez, the hometown of Amini.
Despite her mother’s reluctance for her to attend school, Roshana said she decided to return to school after the New Year break. “I know I am not safe, but I think if these attacks mean that there are people who do not want girls to get educated, I’d be giving them what they want by not going to my classes,” she said.
“It is very tough. I do not know what is right and what is wrong. But I do trust my daughter’s decision,” Fereshteh said. However, she still does not let her son go to school. “I know it damages his learning procedure, especially at this age, but he has respiratory problems, and a gas attack can make him very sick.”
The alleged gas attacks were first reported in November in the holy city of Qom when 18 schoolgirls were hospitalized after feeling sick at a school. Similar events soon spread to over 100 cities, affecting both girls’ and boys’ schools and university students, according to activists.
The attacks have re-ignited new protests against the Islamic Republic. The regime was already under pressure with the women-led protests over the suspicious death of Amini.
Videos shared online by activists and human rights groups appear to show students on hospital beds suffering from respiratory problems, dizziness, nausea, with some complaining they feel numb in their limbs. Some victims said they smelled citrus fruit or rotten fish before feeling sick, according to Iranian media reports.
“No dystopian novel can beat the story our students live now. Poisoning defenseless girls at schools by chemical gases is the worst thing that one can possibly imagine,” Said Shadi, a 26-year Tehran-based tutor, told ABC News.
In February, Iran education minister Yusef Noubri dismissed the first alleged gas attacks as “rumors,” saying the students had underlying illnesses. “A smell was felt in some schools, and some students went to the hospital. Some of these students have underlying diseases and are being treated; then rumors are raised,” he said. The government’s position on the issue changed as the attacks spread throughout the country.
Authorities announced the arrest of several suspects in connection with the suspected poisonings shortly before the Persian New Year. However, some Iranians have expressed doubt that the main culprits have been arrested amid the ongoing attacks.
Some said they do not believe the regime has a “real intention” of arresting or punishing those involved in the poisonings.
“They (authorities) use the traffic cameras and their intelligence to arrest women who do not wear a hijab. If they are serious in their claim, why they do not use these resources to identify the ones attack on innocent kids,” Shadi said.
In early March, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi ordered the Interior Ministry to probe the incidents, with the assistance of the health and intelligence ministries, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
“We talk about the attacks a lot. Some of us think it is them (the regime). Some of us believe they want us to stay at home just like what the Taliban is doing to the girls in Afghanistan,” Roshana said.
The White House said last month that the Biden administration does not know what is causing the apparent attacks and called for the Iranian government to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation.
“It’s deeply concerning news coming out of Iran,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said. “Little girls going to school should only have to worry about learning. They shouldn’t have to worry about their own physical safety, but we just don’t know enough right now.
